Ancient DNA and the human past

Reich argued that, based on currently available ancient DNA, all of the main Indo-European daughter branches may have expanded from the Yamnaya culture on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe in ancient Russia via massive migrations soon after the Neolithic period ∼4,500 years ago.

Yamnaya is the archaeological Russian culture responsible for spreading "Late-Proto-Indo-European" languages. The ‘steppe hypothesis’ by Reich et al. proposes that early Indo-European speakers spread into Europe after the invention of wheeled vehicles.

Our results support a view of European pre-history punctuated by two major migrations: first, the arrival of the first farmers during the Early Neolithic from the Near East, and second, the arrival of Yamnaya pastoralists during the Late Neolithic from the steppe. Our data further show that both migrations were followed by resurgences of the previous inhabitants: first, during the Middle Neolithic, when hunter-gatherer ancestry rose again after its Early Neolithic decline, and then between the Late Neolithic and the present, when farmer and hunter-gatherer ancestry rose after its Late Neolithic decline. This second resurgence must have started during the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age period itself, as the Bell Beaker and Unetice groups had reduced Yamnaya ancestry compared to the earlier Corded Ware, and comparable levels to that in some present-day Europeans (Fig. 3). Today, Yamnaya related ancestry is lower in southern Europe and higher in northern Europe, and all European populations can be modelled as a three-way mixture of WHG, Early Neolithic, and Yamnaya, whereas some outlier populations show evidence for additional admixture with populations from Siberia and the Near East (Extended Data Fig. 3, Supplementary Information section 9). Further data are needed to determine whether the steppe ancestry arrived in southern Europe at the time of the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age, or is due to migrations in later times from northern Europe25,26. Our results provide new data relevant to debates on the origin and expansion of Indo-European languages in Europe (Supplementary Information section 11).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5048219/

there are several other sites as well, this is just one, and purportedly of a city.

A bit off topic, but using DNA for dating purposes is suspect, and new evidence recently is continuing to raise doubts about it, so we'll probably be seeing some revisions of conclusions drawn from DNA evidence coming along in the next few years. I've never personally given it much credibility.

Wow...I certainly wasn't implicating that it wasn't news....I was simply saying that technology has allowed natural science to find a way to corroborate what the liberal arts contribution to anthropological science had since "postulated"...

I don't think any of this invalidates "out of Africa." That's dated much further back, like 50,000 years, not the 5,000 or so this thread is referring to.

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Actually it does, since the finds keep taking human civilizations further and further back, and their genetics couldn't have changed that drastically the closer and closer we get to that '50,000 years ago' theme. It was never a valid case anyway; using DNA to date anything isn't accurate and more proof of that comes out every few years or so. There is no genuine solid evidence for a common origin for all humans.

Reich argued that, based on currently available ancient DNA, all of the main Indo-European daughter branches may have expanded from the Yamnaya culture on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe in ancient Russia via massive migrations soon after the Neolithic period ∼4,500 years ago.

Yamnaya is the archaeological Russian culture responsible for spreading "Late-Proto-Indo-European" languages. The ‘steppe hypothesis’ by Reich et al. proposes that early Indo-European speakers spread into Europe after the invention of wheeled vehicles.

Actually it does, since the finds keep taking human civilizations further and further back, and they're genetic couldn't have changed that drastically the closer and closer we get to that '50,000 years ago' theme. It was never a valid case anyway; using DNA to date anything isn't accurate and more proof of that comes out every few years or so. There is no genuine solid evidence for a common origin for all humans.

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OK I don't know what you're arguing now. You're not one of those "ancient astronaut" types are you?

OK I don't know what you're arguing now. You're not one of those "ancient astronaut" types are you?

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lol no, I just know the difference between real empirical evidence and speculative guessing based entirely on a handful of bones that would all fit on my kitchen table from extinct species of apes. There is a huge amount of this planet that hasn't even been scratched yet. And as I pointed out DNA dating isn't anywhere near valid, especially past 6,000 years or so.

lol no, I just know the difference between real empirical evidence and speculative guessing based entirely on a handful of bones that would fit on my kitchen table from extinct species of apes.

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Well you're dismissing out-of-Africa based on a thread describing a group that existed 5000 years ago, not 50,000, so I'm not sure what you're basing that on. To me, it seemed to be out of the blue. If there is a counter-hypothesis to out-of-Africa I'm game to listen but again, I can't see the connection to this thread topic.

Well you're dismissing out-of-Africa based on a thread describing a group that existed 5000 years ago, not 50,000, so I'm not sure what you're basing that on. To me, it seemed to be out of the blue. If there is a counter-hypothesis to out-of-Africa I'm game to listen but again, I can't see the connection to this thread topic.

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Hybridization with PeopleKind in EurAsia who were likely, lighter than Black.
Sexual Selection seems to further the Whitening regardless of it being recessive.
BTW the lightening of Asians is different genetically than that of Euros.

I also suggest Sexual Selection resulted in the Asiatic flattening of cheek bones Chinese anthropologist claim their H. erectus as showing the earliest flattening. Such modification broadens the face and a broad face is likewise, sexually selected.

"The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World" was written a decade ago without reflecting on recent genetic evidence but it's not widely off the mark. David Anthony located the PIE homeland in the Pontic-Caspian steppes by tracing linguistic and archaeological materials. Especially, the word "wheel" was the key PIE term and the invention of the wheel enabled the steppe herders to take over Old Europe.

However, the Yamnaya steppe herders had brown eyes and brown hair, which may have made them look rather more Asiatic than modern Europeans, based on recent genetic studies on ancient Yamnaya individuals. The Bashkirs (башкиры), a Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan, have the exact same haplotype as the Yamnaya steppe herders.

Hybridization with PeopleKind in EurAsia who were likely, lighter than Black.
Sexual Selection seems to further the Whitening regardless of it being recessive.
BTW the lightening of Asians is different genetically than that of Euros.

I also suggest Sexual Selection resulted in the Asiatic flattening of cheek bones Chinese anthropologist claim their H. erectus as showing the earliest flattening. Such modification broadens the face and a broad face is likewise, sexually selected.